Meet the StarNow Crew — Rosie

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Meet Rosie, one of our user experience designers! When she’s not in the office designing ‘delightful experiences’ for you, our wonderful members, she’s out scaling a rock face or teaching yoga.

What's your role at StarNow, and what does a typical day at work involve for you? I’m a UX (user experience) designer. To quote our ‘design team principles’ we are: creative, collaborative and user-centred. “We design delightful experiences so users don’t have to think!”

It’s hard to describe a typical day as it’s so varied, but I could be working on anything from marketing collateral to small or large UI (user interface) enhancements, designing new features or improving current features, and/or doing some user testing.

What's your favourite part about working at StarNow? Working in a small team is great as we get to collaborate with the wider business and also work across a lot of different aspects of a ‘product cycle’ from ideation to delivery.

It’s great hearing feedback, whether it’s through analytics, user testing, customer success or social media, of the impact our work has on our members. We are constantly learning and improving, and having that growth mindset is one of my favourite parts of my job!

Go girl!

What are you best known for in the office? I recently found out that my desk is known as ‘Rosie’s apartment’. It often has an array of ‘domestic’ items on it, or surrounding it… including a Soda Stream machine, climbing gear, biking gear, wardrobe items, my ‘throne’ (chair with back support pillows and sarong), and I usually have snacks on my desk (not always healthy ones). I do lots of activities after work so I like to be prepared!

Whenever I cook dumplings in the StarNow kitchen, it garners attention… you can do a lot with a toasty maker including make tortillas, fry mushrooms, heat pizza and more!

Where is a place in Wellington that is of significance to you and why? I love rock climbing out at Turakirae Head, on the southern coast about 20km south of Wainuiomata. There’s not a lot of outdoor climbing near Wellington so we have to make the most of what’s local and good weather windows!

Hiking in the Tararua Ranges is also quite spectacular, very rugged and ‘New Zealand.’

Tenting near Kime Hut in the Tararuas. Enjoying a breathtaking sunset.

If you ruled the world, what would you change on day one? Free health care for everyone! A StarNow member said to us once: “Your health is your wealth.”

If you were stuck on an island, what 3 things would you bring? Some sort of survivalist manual so I could learn how to survive in the wild (light fire, create drinking water, propagate seeds etc.)

In terms of recreational stuff… probably a TheraBand (a resistance band that can be used for strength & flexibility training exercises) so I could use it for yoga and also ‘training’. I’d get super fit on the island so I could escape if I needed to.

If the island was cat-friendly, I would take my cats Mia & Nino. If not, I would definitely bring coffee.

She's called 'Aunty Rosie' now. Rosie's twin sister Julie and her twins (Sylvia and Tuva). FYI: the chances of an identical twin having identical twins is 9 in 1 million.

What's the most important lesson you've learned in the last year? Empathy goes a long way.

What do you like to do outside of work? Rock climbing, yoga, relaxing, playing with my cats and watching movies.

I am trying to avoid the modern disease of ‘being busy’ – I like this quote: “time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” (Outside of work of course!)

What super power would you choose and why? Immunity to sickness and injuries. No explanation needed.

Abseiling after climbing a multi pitch out at Kawakawa Bay (near Taupo).

Maddison Baker is StarNow’s Digital Marketing Coordinator. She’s multi-talented and multi-faceted - between answering your questions on social media, writing blogs and reporting, she manages to pack a lot into her day (think lunchtime gym sessions to after-work netball games.) She always knows where the newest, coolest café is, the lyrics to Drake’s latest song, and is particularly interested in is particularly interested in writing and people— specifically their stories.